Content security: how watermarking and blocking are helping to combat the pirates

Broadcasters and media service providers now have more options than ever before in terms of technologies and techniques to combat illegitimate activity propagated by organised crime groups and, increasingly, nation-states. Two of these mechanisms include watermarking and blocking.

The former is not particularly new, of course, but is now increasingly prevalent across streaming services, especially those involving premium content such as sports and tentpole dramas. But the way in which watermarking is delivered is continuing to mature and evolve, with ‘as-a-service’ models now commonplace.

The rise of blocking, however, is more recent and has attracted some controversy because of perceived drawbacks like the possible inadvertent obstruction of legitimate services. For instance, the recently launched Pirate Shield project in Italy, which aims to protect the big sports rights holders – such as DAZN, Sky, Prime Video and Infinity – by blocking unauthorised viewing of live events has attracted criticism from some ISPs, VPNs and consumers. At the least, further refinements would seem to be inevitable...